Post by Isaac Ho on Feb 7, 2012 15:40:34 GMT -5

A note of warning before I begin to describe in graphic details about The Body Farm. Hence, readers' discretion is appreciated.

The Body Farm is located in Tennessee in which a two-acre field is filled with rotting corpses. The wooded facility is as quite as a cemetery; in spring, birds hop actively among the branches and occasionally a pair of vultures do perch on a lower tree limp eyeing the rotting cadavers on the grassy ground below.

Of certainty, forensic scientists have learned a great deal by observing the "donated" bodies under all stages of natural decomposition. Their knowledge thus acquired would be applied effectively in forensic investigation and hereby helping the police and FBI to crack unresolved homicide cases - one after another.

The body farm is under the jurisdiction of the Faculty of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, as it is the world's foremost scientific discipline on investigation of human decomposition in the open field.

The body farm had been founded by Dr. William M. Bass, Dean of Anthropology and his co-worker Dr. Murray Marks. This outdoor facility was started in 1981, when Bass requested the university authorities to provide him with two acres of wooded area for the necessary forensic investigation into rotting human remains.

The remains were usually donated by supporters when they died, then arrangement was then made to transport their bodies to the Body Farm to be observed. But after all the flesh and sinews had rotted away in the ground, the skeletons would be properly cleaned and stored in indexed card board boxes for later study and future reference.

If the family members in which the corpose had initially been donated for study might request, after a time and so desired, would be returned to them for a proper burial.

Even Dr. Bass, his abled assistant Dr. Murray Marks and other colleagues are potential doners after they had expired for the Body Farm's study...!

Dr. Murray Marks is presently collected data and visual information on these human decomposition with a view to compiling a detailed and illustrated atlas in future. This important publication would contribute immensely for homicide investigations as well as study by post-graduate students in anthropologic pathology.

The Body Farm is located just a stone throw across the placid Tennessee River; there are trees growing around the two-acre field where human bodies in various stages of final decomposition are studied daily by both professors and students.

Some of the dead bodies or corposes are purposely placed under cement blocks to gauge the rapidity of decomposition; while some are left in the open to rot; there are human remains which would be buried in the bonnet of cars to check the decomposition temperate and the rate of decay; further more, some bodies are placed inside sealed caskets donated by funeral parlours and casket-makers to ascertain how well the unembalmed corpses would disintegrate. Nevertheless, all donated or unclaimed bodies are treated with due respects under study.

Another important aspect of The Body Farm is to provide canine with systematic training and develop as smart Cadaver Dogs. When properly trained these cadaver dogs could have acquire their superior trained smelling ability to sniff out concealed rotting corpses, washed-out blood traces and articles belong to the victim in question.

During the first year or so of the establishment of this decomposition field, a mere handful of Tennesse activists picketed the facility to protest their opinion of the treatment of human remains in deliberate, exposed field conditions. Such treatment of bodies, the protesters insisted were not in keeping with norms of a civilized society. But they misunderstood the necessary scientific study on the decomposing human remains to crack open difficult homicide cases and thus render assistance to the police as well as FBI to ultimately bring these murderous criminals to justice, and which would otherwise escape the dragnet in the absence of this important field study.

By prior appointment, visitors have been allowed to visit the world-famous Body Farm. Students of forensic investigation, police forces all across the U.S. and even homicide experts do send their representatives to visit this facility and learn about human decomposition in criminal investigation.

An interesting but graphic except in the New York Times online about the Body Farm in which its author, Lawrence Osborne write as follows:

"Back at the (body) farm, Murray Marks shivers at the sight of a spider hanging from a large web obstructing the path.

"Frankly," he sighs, "I'm more scared of spiders than I am of dead bodies."

"We lock the gates behind us, admiring for a moment the crenelation of razor wire and a shed piled high with salt. Murray Marks tells me they have had only one skull stolen in 25 years! I ask him then if he thinks criminals are wishing up to the new techniques in demystifying death.

"They are yes. They're beginning to cut bodies up more and make more of an effort to dispose of them. But fortunately for us, most murderers are still pretty dumb."

"We breath the sweet stench for the last time. "You get used to it," he says. "To me, a decomp is a thousand times more interesting than a skeleton. Skeletons are just boring eye-candy."

"Later, I ask Bass himself if anything in his dealings with the dead had ever disturbed him.

"Not really," he says without missing a beat. "I hate death itself. I hate funerals. But dead bodies? Then again, as my wife points out, I have a very poor sense of smell."

THE END OF THIS INTERSTING STORY ------------------------------------

Please note: If any reader desires to persue this interesting subject further, he or she could click on the below urls to either read or enjoy a video clip of The Body Farm:

I have been studying human decomposition in my leisure time.In my private library are many books concerning decomposition and death studies. The following are interesting in which I browse on and off in my hobby time.

5. THE BODY FARM - A New York bestselling novel about cadavers investigated by CSI (or Crime Study Investigation) by popular writer, Patricia Cornwell. (It was Partricia which coined the name 'THE BODY FARM,' an unofficial term in her novel of the same name, but now it is popularly used when referring to the University of Tennesee field study of decomposing cadavers as conducted by Dr. William Bass and Dr. Murray Marks.)